It is common practice in the fiber glass industry to simultaneously produce a multiplicity of continuous primary glass filaments from a single melting pot and then subject the primary filaments to a continuous hot gaseous blast to reduce the primary filaments to fine fibers for use as insulation or the like.
The gaseous blast may be provided by an attenuation burner which generally comprises a refractory lining encased in a metal housing. While this burner perfomrs admirably for its intended purpose, over prolonged operating periods, glass may be deposited on faces of the refractory material proximate the outlet opening of such a burner. This may be caused by a doubling up of the primary filaments which then contact the faces of the refractory lining of the burner forming an accumulation of glass. Over a period of time other primary filaments contact this accumlation of glass causing a further accumulation.
Typically, an operator of the attenuation burner inconveniently removes the deposited glass by using a suitable mechanical instrument to chip the glass away. Unfortunately, at times such a crude removal system may cause the refractory material forming the faces of the burner to be cracked or otherwise damaged. This damage may cause an undesirable modification of the flow characteristics of the burner resulting in an unscheduled change in fiber quality, increased maintenance down time and uneconomical cost increases for the attenuation process.